Tag Archives: bespoke stationery

Having recently spent time going through the thousands of photo’s I have for the recent favourite photo meme, I dusted off (literally) my wedding album. Without a doubt THE most expensive photos I own containing photos of THE most expensive things I have ever bought – flowers, shoes, cake etc. Mr L and I got married on the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2003, the weather was sunny and warm, it was a FAB day. I loved my wedding. I loved the preparations, the day itself, the honeymoon, actually especially the honeymoon, oh and the champagne and cake how could I forget they were bloody gorgeous too! Oh yes and that whole marriage thing with Mr L isn’t bad either 😉

Fast forward six and a bit years and that day is all memories and memorabilia. Being truly honest its not often recalled and very rarely looked at. I have my memory box with all the stationery, the cards, our place settings, a few leftover favours, the speeches, a few pressed flowers and some bits of confetti. I also still have my wedding outfit – my dress, shoes (Gina’s if you were wondering!), veil, tiara (but of course!) – all cleaned and boxed up. In the immediate post wedding days I’d had this thought that if I ever had a daughter, which of course I now do, she’d like to see my wedding dress. I never thought I’d pass it on for her to wear it more maybe to play dressing up in it.

Now here we are in 2010. I sit in my home, which is no longer home to two but four, my home which is filling up with bright plastic shit toys and “stuff”, at a rate faster than I can ever see the declutter process making any significant impact on. Now here in 2010 when I look at my wedding outfit I see space and cash! I see space potential using my “maximise your property” hat, trained by home improvement and makeover TV shows and through my eBay eyes I can see some significant £’s! It got me wondering have I lost touch with the romance of my wedding, of creating modern family heirlooms and heritage? Or are they unrealistic ideas in modern times anyway? Would either me or Baby G when she becomes Girlie G get anything special from her playing with it, would she ever really want to and would I ever really let her? Hmmm. Is there a middle ground to keep the shoes, veil & tiara and flog the frock? Hmmm, I wonder.

So me and my dress. Together on show for just one day only over 6 years ago. It feels like an airing is long overdue! So here it is, me in my wedding dress with my Dad in those few last single minutes.

My wedding dress – should it stay or should it go! Experience? Thoughts? What do you vote – keep it or sell it?

My wedding all came long before I started blogging and the same for many others but you know what I’d love to see some “Blogger Brides” so I’m going to create this post into a meme and this is the first of the “Here comes my frock” meme! Made up by me for me, because I love a good wedding!

To start the ball rolling I am going to ask the following beautiful brides to share their wedding frocks and any story you choose to share about your dress and or day, where is now and in the spirit of all good meme’s to pass it on, if you tweet tag it #herecomesmyfrock so we can see get a stream of them all!

As with every meme I do, play if you can and if you too want to be tagged consider it so!

Karin over at Cafe Bebe because she encouraged me to get my finger out and write this post!

I am all excited about competitions this week! Why? Well, two reasons – I have won one and I am running one!

Competitions makes me feel all nostalogic, entering competitions is something my Nana used to do on my behalf and also with me. My Nana was master of the “tie breaker” and she used to win loads of stuff too – a lego set and a snoopy watch (I still have the watch in my jewellery box!) are two prizes I still fondly remember!

So what did I win, well over at Mums Like You I won two tickets to the Designer Baby Show so have the chance to spend a day enjoying shopping, talking and discovering best-of-breed baby products. Sadly for me the timing (15th November) and the geography (Berkshire, I live in Cheshire) with baby number two due early October meant I have returned the tickets for another lucky winner to be redrawn – I like to think I am sharing the love! So on this occassion, whilst the taking part was important it was pretty much all about the winning! Ha Ha!

So that’s the won one, now to the one I am running … which is for my stationery business, Dandelion Lounge. It will coincide with our Christmas Card, Festive Photo Inserts and Thank You card designs all going live for the festive season and will be running over at the fabulous Café Bébé starting on Sunday 7th through to Saturday 12th September. Full details are already posted up there in anticipation so I shall say no more and let you head on over and check it out … and whilst you are there you still have time to enter a great competition from DaisyChainBaby to win win a gorgeous gift basket worth nearly £30.

I am so chuffed, Dandelion Lounge is running a new banner ad campaign on http://www.mumslikeyou.com I’ve screen grabbed one of the ads running on the site – what do you think?

Mums Like You is a new, ambitous and great newcomer to the online community circuit so if you haven’t paid a visit yet, I’d recommend it as a great online destination to enjoy a coffee break or nap time or two. Mums Like Your enables mothers to stay in touch, share parenting advice and discuss topics we all face as a parent.

I can honestly say its a genuinely friendly community of mums – in the real world I am far from shy but in the virtual one I have been a bit of a lurker for a while, felt very self conscious and just frankly not cool enough to join the groups, forums & communities. I’ve joined a decent number now and this and a few others have been the most welcoming, helpful & supportive. So thank you Mums Like You!

These banners form the start of our Christmas promotional activity which me and the team back at the Lounge are getting super excited about, last year was our “First Christmas” and we were blown away by the popularity of our Christmas cards and photo inserts. We’re very much working hard and hoping to continue our first years success. The collection will be going live online shortly but if you would like an e-brochure sending to you in the meantime just drop me an email at claire@dandelionlounge.co.uk or register online at www.dandelionlounge.co.uk and you’ll get an email as soon as the colletion goes live.

Sorry to be mentioning Christmas in August – but hey I’m a planner by nature and marketer by trade – I’ve got Easter finished before Santa has made to the Chimney! Cx

This post is brought to you by the letter “W” because this letter has dominated my week …

·WEATHER, WET WEATHER too – practically all week it feels like.

·To combat the weather my husband bought me WELLIES for my birthday, an odd gift you may think, but I love them. They are Hunters www.hunterboots.comand if you have a little boy being outdoors and preferably amongst mud and puddles these are vital. I have coveted them for years and now I have my very own navy ones!

·Then there has been the WRITING of the Christmas Cards – whilst I love, love, love creating bespoke stationery I hate, hate, hate printing address labels!Why do they always jam my printer at home?!

·WOOLIES – not the knitted jumper type the WOOLWORTHS type. This week sees a high street favourite, a national institution facing collapse. I feel very nostalgic towards woolies, I bought my first record there, spent loads of pocket money on penny sweets fizzy cola bottles and the like and more recently found it brilliant value for kids clothes and Fisher Price toys. I will be very sad to see it go and hope it is saved at the last minute and the brand returns bigger and better than ever. There is a petition for government help to save Woolies from the administrators which you can sign here http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/savewoolies

·The biggest “W” of them all has got to be a WEDDING and I’ve got one of those coming up before Christmas as my sister-in-law gets married next Saturday 20th December. I’ve been gift shopping and outfit choosing times three – it will be a first for my son and our first experience of attending a wedding with him … the jury is out on how well weddings and 20 month olds mix!

·WEEKEND’S – We have no free WEEKEND’s now until well into the New Year, great on the one hand its always lovely to see friends, family and the “framily” that crosses between the two.Good times are had and the WINE always flows but my WAISTLINE and WEIGHT are always challenged by all of the above at this time of year – ho hum! Diet tonic with the gin should help a bit at least!

·WEDDINGS and WEEKENDS away have also had me buying some new toddler kit from my favourite online store www.bumpto3.comso a good browse online and a new travel gro-bag and a table booster seat are on their way to me.

·Not too much of my favourite “W”, WINE, this week but I will be making up for that this evening. I am out for supper with friends and with mine and my friend James’ birthday around the table and the kids installed chez Grandparents there is more than a little cause for celebration!

… and not that much warmer at the printers! December is definitely here and according to the weather reports snow is not far away. Thank goodness for central heating. Its been a fairly busy few weeks with Christmas orders to create, print and deliver, now there is just the small matter of writing them – thankfully stamps are self adhesive these days!

I’ve been making and meeting up with some new “friends of Dandelion Lounge” who I will be introducing you to over the weeks and months ahead, these are like minded people who offer products and services I use/like/couldn’t live without. More about that in future posts.

At home I am enjoying a seasonal rest from my freelance marketing work, taking time to learn more about blogging and other web 2.0 stuff for Dandelion Lounge and other clients and very much enjoying being a mum to Hugo. He’s 19 months old now and really great fun, buying his Christmas gifts has been brilliant, this year Santa is bringing him “Mikes Auto Garage” a wooden toy garage and cars from Le Toy Van www.letoyvan.comalong with inevitably much, much more. I am hoping for an extension to house the ever expanding was toy box … now section of living room … soon to be entire living room and I guess eventually they will take over the entire house!

I am still compiling the address list for my Christmas cards so will check back again soon and more frequently – ’til next time!